Sascha Lappessen's rise to
power as the Emperor of Dance Music is one of the most
interesting sagas of all time. No doubt, should our
beloved God see fit, he will one day compose an epic
operetta about it, and persuade a few New Age Vikings to
recount the tale for centuries. And now for the bland
stuff...

Sash! is undoubtedly the best
phenonemon ever to hit our mortal plane. The face of
Sash!, Sascha Lappessen, is joined by Ralf 'Kappi'
Kappmeier and Thomas Alisson in the production team that
has dominated world charts since 1996. Contrary to
popular belief, it is more than just one person!
According to the German-born Sascha, it's his beloved
family, including the group's label, the dancers and most
importantly the fans. (Imagine how much he has to spend
at Christmas!) Kappi and Thomas have also enjoyed their
own success as dance coverband "Minnesota", but
real success came with Sash! The three have been joined
twice by Frankie McCoy in the production of
"Sweat" and "Stay".

Sascha
began his rise to fame and ultimate power when he first
experimented with the mixing deck at the age of 16. Soon
after this he met Ralf Kappmeier and under the group name
of Careka, they released some material. However, the
debut hit of Sash! was 'It's My Life',
and this turned out to be a huge club hit across Europe.
This song was a delicious taste of what was to come in
the future from the team. Although it did not enter the
Top 40 in many countries, the work that the team did in
remixing known artists like 2 Unlimited gained much
credit in dance label circles. Rumours state that album
track "Mighty Break" has also been released as
a track, after this time.

Late
in 1996 they met Sabine Ohmes, who was to become the
unforgettable lyricist of "Encore
Une Fois". Simple though they
were, the words 'Madames,
Monsieurs... le disc jockey Sash! est de retour'
were enough to propel this song into the higher reaches
of the charts. But as we all know Sash! is one suprise
after another, and it soon turned out that Sabine was not
even French! She was in fact a friend of Sascha's from
southern Germany. Sabine did not remain as principal
vocalist, and subsequently formed her own dance act,
Encore. Their debut, "Le
Disc-Jockey" was warmly
greeted by European dancefloors.

Adrian
Rodriguez, a talented young and balding Argentine also
based in Germany that declared in a loud Spanish voice, "Ecuador",
and equally loud was the crowd's screams. This follow-up
was an instant smash through Europe and gained a great
name as a 1997 Ibiza anthem. The debut album, "It's
My Life" followed a week
later. This is still doing well throughout European
charts, and is 10 times platinum.

La
Trec, an attractive American woman based in Holland, and
really called Frankie McCoy, took her turn as figurehead
when she performed the fourth storming song, "Stay"
in the second half of 1997. She was picked up by the team
by good fortune, because she was recording a commerical
in the adjacent studio when the album was in production.
They liked her enough to ask her to contribute her skills
to some tracks, two of which featured on the album.

"La
Primavera" followed in early
1998, featuring vocals from Patrizia Salvatore. Not so
much is known about her talent, although it is said that
she's American also and does not speak a word of Italian.

The
next single, "Mysterious
Time" conquered the UK charts
by storming right back to the traditional Sash! throne at
Number 2. Selling more records than almost ANYONE ELSE,
the population never really got over this terrific song,
as it stayed in the charts longer than any other song (it
is still there, hovering in the Top 20!)

The
new album "Life Goes On" enjoyed
a similar fantastic success, launching straight into the
Top 5 of the album chart and within two weeks it had sold
more copies in the UK than the debut album had sold
world-wide! It's a truly remarkable record, 7 months in
the making was really worth it!

We
now await the third single, "Move
Mania" taken from the album.
It's due for release in November.